Sitey is, on the surface, an appealing choice for new website owners.
Their platform makes it super easy to build a professional looking website. They have tons of templates to choose from, and they feature a simple point and click website editor. Unlike many other website buildering platforms, it’s pretty intuitive.
They even let you have websites for completely free, what can be argued about that?
But a further look inside the company’s history reveals some concerns that anybody considering using Sitey’s services should definitely be aware of.
Sitey isn’t the only name they go by…
I’ve reviewed a couple of their sister companies, Siteblog and Sitebuilder, but there are yet many more. The website Top 10 Webbuilders, which appears high within search every time one of these companies is searched for, seems to be created by (or connected to) the owners of this business because every single one of their recommendations is owned by the same company.
Now, what really concerns me about this is the majority of these websites are offering IDENTICAL services. Some of them vary slightly in the services they offer – but from what I have seen, Siteblog, Website Builder, Sitebuilder, Sitelio, and Templates are all exactly like Sitey! Their service packages are the same, their website building software is the same and even their horrible customer service is the same!
Deceptive advertising
To be clear, I have yet to see them do this directly with Sitey. Nonetheless, they run very questionable ads with their other websites – like Siteblog, for example. They advertise blogging as a great way to earn 6, 7 or even 10K/month! All you must do is sign up for their website services and you’ll unlock the secret to making money… or so they claim.
But the truth is, they provide zero training on how to actually do it! They do offer some tools within their platform (for an upsell, of course) but don’t really explain what they do or why you’d even need them.
They offer very little value, and just end up confusing people.
Even worse, they advertise as entirely free, but make it difficult for most to access the free version. Only when you try and click away from the sales page will you be offered a discount, and you have to try clicking away a few more times in order to get free access! (Just for clarification this is not how Sitey operates. You can access this version for entirely free and they will not play any tricks on you here)
Notice “Owen” the account manager at both Sitey AND Siteblog. If they are willing to play these games on their other websites, it degrades any value they may offer with Sitey, at least in my eyes.
Only offer payment options for 1 or 2 YEARS at a time
It’s great they offer a free service option, but for most people who need professional sites it won’t be enough. Their free sites display ads for the company, and also will put you with the domain extentsion .sitey.me (instead of a .com, .org, .net , etc)
And I completely understand them wanting people to upgrade and pay money for more options and a real domain, they are trying to run a business after all.
But there are major problems with the way Sitey handles billing.
First off, they only let you pay for either 1 year or 2 years up front, making people pay a minimum of $95 ($167 for 2 years).
They should give customers the option to pay monthly so they can experience the service and see if it’s something they would be want to actually stay with for an entire year. But, they probably know everyone would cancel after the first month due to horrible hosting and support, so they are just trying to squeeze as much money out of people up front!
Hidden charges
Whatever they advertise as the per month/year price, expect hidden charges to come up on your bank statement. I’ve heard many complains from customers who had to deal with unexpected fees from this company.
HORRENDOUS customer support
When it comes to their customer service, it seems like this company just doesn’t give a flying crap. They’ve given their support staff an extremely strict script to work from that allows little deviation, which translates into them being no help if you ever encounter an issue. That is, IF you can even get ahold of them!
They don’t man their support phone line well and they ignore emails. The chat support is where you’ll most likely be able to get ahold of somebody, but it most likely won’t help considering they give canned responses 100% of the time.
Don’t support them – choose another host!
There are so many options for building websites and hosting these days, you don’t have to resort to using a company that uses extremely questionable tactics to make money.
While many of these issues, like the deceptive bait and switch advertising, may not be directly associated with the Sitey name – but don’t let that fool you. These companies are all the same, and they’ve created so many identities to easily get away with it.
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